When my two kids were finishing their junior years of high school, they each received the assignment from their English teacher to write a college application essay. It sure sounded good—they could get a jump on these dreaded essays and receive professional direction on how to find great topics and write them in an engaging, memorable style. It didn’t quite work out that way. From what I could tell, this task of teaching how to write college admissions essays was dumped on these teachers, and they had to cram in a last-minute writing section at the very end of the year (and compete with the AP test crunch time, other end-of-year deadlines/pressures and spring fever.). Also, as far as I could tell, no one really taught the teachers how to write college admissions essays and students had had very little practice writing in a narrative style. I’m sure this assignment was better than nothing. And that there are English teachers out there who do know about writing, and provide great advice and direction for their students.
1. DAY ONE of Essay Lesson Plan: Discuss what makes a great college application essay. The best way to help students understand what makes a great essay, and see for themselves how these essays use a different style of writing (narrative/slice-of-life), is to share some samples. Find some good ones, even a couple bad ones, and have the class read them together and talk about what they liked, and what they didn’t like. Students should be encouraged to trust what they find entertaining, moving and interesting, and try to copy the literary techniques other students used in their essays. Try to find sample essays that show the variety of topics that can work, especially those that are mundane (everyday). 2. DAY TWO of Essay Lesson Plan: Help students brainstorm their own topic ideas. I have written a condensed, step-by-step guide on this process, but also have several posts on how students can find their defining qualities, and then search for their own real-life stories that illustrate a core quality.
It would be very easy to convert the steps I take students through into your own instruction-just step them through this process in class. 3. DAY THREE of Essay Lesson Plan: After each student has collected a short list of defining qualities, have them brainstorm “times” they used or developed one of these qualities in real life. Tell them that they are looking for mini-stories, called “anecdotes,” that they can share in their essays. One huge key to a great anecdote is if it involves a problem (this is your chance to talk about the power of “conflict” in a story.) My Crash Course in How to Write an Anecdote. Try to find examples of anecdotes, either in sample college admissions essays or at the start of magazines or feature stories in the newspaper. You could even assign students to find one on their own and bring it to class. How To Write A Narrative Essay Outline on anecdotes not only explain what they are, but have details on how to craft them. Article has been generated by Essay Writers.
Teach this process to your students-and you will have given them one of the most powerful writing techniques around. Have them watch my two short YouTube videos on How to Write an Anecdote: Part One and How to Write an Anecdote: Part Two. Talk about how this anecdote shows the reader about their defining quality as opposed to just telling them about it. Discuss why this is so powerful to grab the reader at the start of the essay. After they write their anecdote, have them go back and try to condense it even further. This is part of the skill of writing these, and they do take practice. How did they handle that problem? What steps they took. Where they drew inspiration to face it. Have them be aware of how their core quality is involved in this process, or the role it plays. What did they learn in the process of dealing with it? About themselves.
About others. About the world in general. Did this experience change them, or how they think about things/life, in any way? Tell them to get reflective and analytical at this point. One related activity to have students do in pairs, would be this simple exercise on How to Find Your Essay Voice. I use this approach with the students I tutor, and it’s amazing how easy it is to “capture” pieces of their authentic teenage voice, and how perfectly even a few of these lines or expressions when they are in a reflective mode can enhance their essays. 6. DAY SIX of Essay Lesson Plan: Help students map out a simple writing plan. Explain how narrative essays are written in a more casual style, and not the 5-paragraph format. Then have them start writing out a rough draft: Have them start with the anecdote to SHOW the problem and then background the incident (a couple paragraphs); and then go on to TELL about what it meant (explain, reflect, analyze, etc.-drawing off notes from Day Five) in a couple more paragraphs.
When my two kids were finishing their junior years of high school, they each received the assignment from their English teacher to write a college application essay. It sure sounded good—they could get a jump on these dreaded essays and receive professional direction on how to find great topics and write them in an engaging, memorable style. It didn’t quite work out that way. From what I could tell, this task of teaching how to write college admissions essays was dumped on these teachers, and they had to cram in a last-minute writing section at the very end of the year (and compete with the AP test crunch time, other end-of-year deadlines/pressures and spring fever.). Also, as far as I could tell, no one really taught the teachers how to write college admissions essays and students had had very little practice writing in a narrative style. I’m sure this assignment was better than nothing. And that there are English teachers out there who do know about writing, and provide great advice and direction for their students.